Tuesday, June 8, 2010

More Iran sanctions likely

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council is expected - perhaps as early as tomorrow - to approve a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Specifically, the UN wants full and unfettered access to all nuclear facilities. Until the International Atomic Energy Agency gets this, there's no way, officials say, that they can verify the extent of the nuclear program in Iran.

The world community has been demanding assurances and proof that Iran is not creating nuclear arms. To that end, it wants its enriched uranium shipped abroad.

Iran has come up with a plan to send its enriched uranium to Turkey. But there's concern that the amount shipped would just be a fraction of the supply on hand and that Tehran would retain enough to still make a nuclear weapon.

The hope is that a unanimous vote by the permanent members of the Security Council would serve to further isolate Iran and place more pressure on its government to comply.